30 November 2011

This post is going to be a little bit all over the place. Consider yourself warned.

Dan is coming home very soon.

She was a lot more excited before she saw me pull out my phone to capture a video. I think you still get the sense of excitement. Also, she spends a lot of her time asking if it has been three days yet. Fun for everyone!!

Anyhow, with him coming home soon I am both overwhelmed with trying to find the time to get things like cleaning the house from top to bottom, grocery shopping, and all the other non-fun-grown-up stuff done and out of the way and spending time watching the clock slowly tick minute to minute. It is a weird limbo for me.

We just have to make it to Friday at dinner time without totally losing my mind.

______________________________

Going to the gym every day we pass a silo. Mabes swears up and down that this is a spaceship. This morning she was so excited about it that she demanded when we came home I show her pictures of real outer space.

I feel so blessed to have a child with such an imagination.

______________________________

This evening I sold our dining room table. Dan and I have big plans to build our dream table in the coming month. I cannot wait. However the big empty spot in the kitchen where our table and chairs used to be kind of weirds me out.

Mabes enjoys the open space to practice her break dancing.

Since it is going to take a little time to get the table made we are making do with a folding table.

______________________________

Well I warned you this post was going to be all over the place. So rather than continue to blather on I am going to wrap this up and paint my toes to look like candy canes.

This post is going to be a little bit all over the place. Consider yourself warned.

Dan is coming home very soon.

She was a lot more excited before she saw me pull out my phone to capture a video. I think you still get the sense of excitement. Also, she spends a lot of her time asking if it has been three days yet. Fun for everyone!!

Anyhow, with him coming home soon I am both overwhelmed with trying to find the time to get things like cleaning the house from top to bottom, grocery shopping, and all the other non-fun-grown-up stuff done and out of the way and spending time watching the clock slowly tick minute to minute. It is a weird limbo for me.

We just have to make it to Friday at dinner time without totally losing my mind.

______________________________

Going to the gym every day we pass a silo. Mabes swears up and down that this is a spaceship. This morning she was so excited about it that she demanded when we came home I show her pictures of real outer space.

I feel so blessed to have a child with such an imagination.

______________________________

This evening I sold our dining room table. Dan and I have big plans to build our dream table in the coming month. I cannot wait. However the big empty spot in the kitchen where our table and chairs used to be kind of weirds me out.

Mabes enjoys the open space to practice her break dancing.

Since it is going to take a little time to get the table made we are making do with a folding table.

______________________________

Well I warned you this post was going to be all over the place. So rather than continue to blather on I am going to wrap this up and paint my toes to look like candy canes.

29 November 2011

One of my biggest pet peeves is how Christmas seems to come earlier and earlier each year. One of the stores in town started putting out holiday merchandise and decorations back in August. I mean seriously, can't we enjoy one holiday at a time? Society seems to be rushing through life and all I want to do is put on the brakes and take the time to enjoy the moment we are currently in. Is that so much to ask?

I'll admit there were a few times in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving that I gave serious consideration to decking our halls early. It was my way of passing time and trying to make it feel like it was colder and more seasonal than our current temperatures are allowing. I resisted the urge and channelled my inner Nordstrom.

This past Saturday after we had officially cleaned up the last bit of Thanksgiving leftovers I decided to go out to the garage and start hauling in the tubs holding all things Christmas.

Mabes was shaking from excitement when she woke up from her nap and found me waiting for her with a Christmas movie and piles of stuff to put up.

My original plan had been to skip putting up the Christmas tree this year. I am having knee surgery next week and didn't know if I wanted to have the added hassle of taking down a tree while on crutches. However, my daughter and husband both convinced me it wouldn't be Christmas without it. Also, Mabes didn't give me much choice. She found parts of the tree in one of the tubs and got to work assembling when I was busy working on the mantel.

Yes, I do hang up four stockings. Our holders spell out Noel and I don't think my OCD would let the L hang empty. Mabes is constantly checking to see if her stocking is still empty. One thing I am looking forward to, her grasping time concepts. One day "a few weeks" will mean a "few weeks" and not "ask me again in three minutes."

Usually I contain most of our Christmas to the living room. However, this year the girlie convinced me to hang up our Jingle All The Way in the dining room. I also utilized some of the log discs my Dad had made for my sister's wedding this summer as part of the centerpiece on the dining room table.

Mabes is also constantly dragging a chair over to the card catalog to see if there is anything in the advent calendar. I have tried to explain that Fred (our resident Elf on the Shelf) will be bringing treats for the countdown when he comes on December 1st. I am excited for Fred to show up. I already have a bunch of ideas for tricks he is going to pull this year.

There you have it, our Christmas decorations for this year. Do you have yours up already? Are you waiting until closer?

We didn't touch the outside other than hanging wreaths on the front and back doors. The rest will be up to Dan when he gets back.

One of my biggest pet peeves is how Christmas seems to come earlier and earlier each year. One of the stores in town started putting out holiday merchandise and decorations back in August. I mean seriously, can't we enjoy one holiday at a time? Society seems to be rushing through life and all I want to do is put on the brakes and take the time to enjoy the moment we are currently in. Is that so much to ask?

I'll admit there were a few times in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving that I gave serious consideration to decking our halls early. It was my way of passing time and trying to make it feel like it was colder and more seasonal than our current temperatures are allowing. I resisted the urge and channelled my inner Nordstrom.

This past Saturday after we had officially cleaned up the last bit of Thanksgiving leftovers I decided to go out to the garage and start hauling in the tubs holding all things Christmas.

Mabes was shaking from excitement when she woke up from her nap and found me waiting for her with a Christmas movie and piles of stuff to put up.

My original plan had been to skip putting up the Christmas tree this year. I am having knee surgery next week and didn't know if I wanted to have the added hassle of taking down a tree while on crutches. However, my daughter and husband both convinced me it wouldn't be Christmas without it. Also, Mabes didn't give me much choice. She found parts of the tree in one of the tubs and got to work assembling when I was busy working on the mantel.

Yes, I do hang up four stockings. Our holders spell out Noel and I don't think my OCD would let the L hang empty. Mabes is constantly checking to see if her stocking is still empty. One thing I am looking forward to, her grasping time concepts. One day "a few weeks" will mean a "few weeks" and not "ask me again in three minutes."

Usually I contain most of our Christmas to the living room. However, this year the girlie convinced me to hang up our Jingle All The Way in the dining room. I also utilized some of the log discs my Dad had made for my sister's wedding this summer as part of the centerpiece on the dining room table.

Mabes is also constantly dragging a chair over to the card catalog to see if there is anything in the advent calendar. I have tried to explain that Fred (our resident Elf on the Shelf) will be bringing treats for the countdown when he comes on December 1st. I am excited for Fred to show up. I already have a bunch of ideas for tricks he is going to pull this year.

There you have it, our Christmas decorations for this year. Do you have yours up already? Are you waiting until closer?

We didn't touch the outside other than hanging wreaths on the front and back doors. The rest will be up to Dan when he gets back.

Online Story Time: Barnes and Noble has a great area on their website which has videos of different celebrities reading stories. Most stories are less than five minutes long. Which is the perfect length of time for keeping Mabes entertained while I use the bathroom or check the mail or make a quick phone call. I also think it goes to show that picking up a book and reading your child a story isn't time consuming and makes a huge impact. (Ps. I read to the girlie every night, her story times don't just come in video format!)

This video is hysterical and makes me so glad I never wanted to be an actor...BOOM:

Ana White: Several people over the years have told me about this website. I just never took the time to really look around at what Ana White had to offer. The site is made up almost entirely of different plans for pieces of furniture that Ana has built herself. I was so inspired that over the weekend I sold our dining room table and chair set and now have plans to build our dream farmhouse table with Dan when he gets back.

Hair Dresser On Fire: Ever saw a cute hairstyle and wondered how you could do that yourself? Ever hear of dry shampoo and had no idea what or how to use it? Reagan has awesome tips, tricks, and tutorials that make even the worst stylist [me] able to pull off some pretty amazing styles.

Online Story Time: Barnes and Noble has a great area on their website which has videos of different celebrities reading stories. Most stories are less than five minutes long. Which is the perfect length of time for keeping Mabes entertained while I use the bathroom or check the mail or make a quick phone call. I also think it goes to show that picking up a book and reading your child a story isn't time consuming and makes a huge impact. (Ps. I read to the girlie every night, her story times don't just come in video format!)

This video is hysterical and makes me so glad I never wanted to be an actor...BOOM:

Ana White: Several people over the years have told me about this website. I just never took the time to really look around at what Ana White had to offer. The site is made up almost entirely of different plans for pieces of furniture that Ana has built herself. I was so inspired that over the weekend I sold our dining room table and chair set and now have plans to build our dream farmhouse table with Dan when he gets back.

Hair Dresser On Fire: Ever saw a cute hairstyle and wondered how you could do that yourself? Ever hear of dry shampoo and had no idea what or how to use it? Reagan has awesome tips, tricks, and tutorials that make even the worst stylist [me] able to pull off some pretty amazing styles.

26 November 2011

Well I didn't. So trick is on you. It just took me until this evening to download the photos from the camera card onto the computer.

We were in Nashville for Halloween. This year we were really relaxed about everything. I decided to let Mabry pick out any costume she wanted provided it came from her dress up stuff in the playroom. Her choice was to be a Fairy Berry. Her only provision was that she have a mask, which she didn't ask for until that morning. Thank goodness I had a bunch of Halloween face paint crayons that I thought to pack in our suitcase at the last minute. Our cousins, Vail and Katy helped come up with the design, complete with "vines."

Mabry and Vail (Sleeping Beauty). I thought I had taken some of Katy (Ariel) too but apparently I didn't. Sorry, Kates!

Mabry displaying the new trick-or-treat bag that Aunt Vail made for all of the kiddos:

Seriously, adorable. Love that bag. Mabry calls it the pumpkin purse.

Micah as Darth Vadar:

All Darth Vadars should have one sock off and one sock on. He is too cute. He cracked me up how he would transform from this sweet little boy to evil Darth Vadar with a hat and an inflatable light saber. He would go around saying, "I am Darth Vadar."

We crashed the neighbor's party and went trick-or-treating with them and about 16 other kids. The family was throwing a birthday party for their daughter. It was a Shark Boy and Lava Girl themed party. Complete with volcano that shot off fireworks.

I used to think that I was a little out of control with some of Mabry's previous birthdays. Never again. Never again.

25 November 2011

For Thanksgiving this year I made a from scratch apple pie. My sister had also planned to make an apple pie using a store bought crust. When I found this out I suggested that I teach her how to make it all from scratch.

Behold the beauty that is Face Time.

Wednesday afternoon we all put on our aprons and got to work.

Mabes enjoyed playing with the flour I had sprinkled on the counter to roll out the crust. She ended up with it all over herself and everything within a three foot radius of where she stood.

Thursday was all about spending time with good friends and eating good food. A lot of good food. Most of these photos speak for themselves. (Ps. I was really excited to use my grandmother's china and also to have a kiddie table!)

Baby N showing off her many facial expressions:

Jessie giving the girls a quick lesson in how to make a wish and pull the wishbone (which we had dried out in the warm oven a little too much because it pretty much shattered rather than snap in half):

For Thanksgiving this year I made a from scratch apple pie. My sister had also planned to make an apple pie using a store bought crust. When I found this out I suggested that I teach her how to make it all from scratch.

Behold the beauty that is Face Time.

Wednesday afternoon we all put on our aprons and got to work.

Mabes enjoyed playing with the flour I had sprinkled on the counter to roll out the crust. She ended up with it all over herself and everything within a three foot radius of where she stood.

Thursday was all about spending time with good friends and eating good food. A lot of good food. Most of these photos speak for themselves. (Ps. I was really excited to use my grandmother's china and also to have a kiddie table!)

Baby N showing off her many facial expressions:

Jessie giving the girls a quick lesson in how to make a wish and pull the wishbone (which we had dried out in the warm oven a little too much because it pretty much shattered rather than snap in half):